Diagrams take up a lot of space. In scientific publications, space is at a premium… so why do scientists use diagrams at all?

In this paper, I explore a possible relationship between how people are thinking and how they are communicating. This topic has been quite widely explored (e.g. Extended Mind Theory), but what is less done is examining a collection of diagrams to try to see patterns in how the diagram creators might be thinking.

One of the interesting aspects of this paper from a software perspective are the different abstraction levels which can be prioritised in diagrams:

• Function
• Data
• Mathematics
• Code

In enterprise software architectures, we might also have e.g. non-functional or commercial considerations. As noted in this post, this is (or should be!) about the user’s needs!

Exec summary

We might be able to get insights into how people are thinking, from the diagrams they create. (And maybe the prioritisations in the diagrams we create might also help shape how people interpret our systems.)